Tag Archives: Stars of Hope

One deployed joint forces squadron got a whole lot of love from three groups of kids across three states. I can’t thank them enough for all their support. Everything was gratefully and very joyfully received! Here’s a little about each project:

Stars of Hope

Thanks to the kids at Weston Middle School who created 100 beautiful stars!

The kids at Weston Middle School in Connecticut took on this community service art project with Stars of Hope. The 100 hand-painted stars they created were a hit and I received this email from one of the troops,

“In the first 10 minutes after they arrived, they were already being hung up! There were so many of them hanging up, I hit my head on a few of them trying to walk into one of the offices! Lol”

Stars of Hope is a charity that initially began as a disaster-relief program to spread hope and healing in areas impacted by natural and man-made disasters. But these stars shine wherever needed—like over our men and women bravely serving far from home at the holidays. Thank you to all the Weston Middle Schoolers who gave their time and talent!

Santa’s Elves

I wish I had a picture that truly captured everything that the Religious Education kids at St. Philip Neri Catholic Church in Fort Mill, South Carolina did for this project. They created and collected cards, stockings and all manner of Christmas joy—14 flat-rate boxes of it!

This is a work in progress—they kept going!

A lot of heart and work went into this and it showed. This is from one of the troops:

Holiday Humor

I had lots of help here in New York for project #3. Now, these are not standard holiday images. But the skull & crossbones visual is part of the unit patch for some of these troops. And of course, their aircraft is pulling Santa’s sleigh! My friend Martin helped me with the art and my daughter was on sticker duty.

Then I roped in a bunch of fabulous kids ages 4 to 12 to make cards. Some of the kids hand-made their entire cards (looking at you Hunter and Joshua!) and the rest were personalized with special drawings or messages. But all of them did a great job. Also thanks to my friend Anna for chipping in to help get the wooden ornaments and candy.

These are the backs. All the fronts had the image of the plane pulling Santa.

Matteo is four years old and when his mom described the image I laughed. Then I asked her to include a description in each card.

After they arrived, I received the following note,

“Gina, thank you so much! We received the ornaments and have handed them out. They turned out wonderfully; the team is really excited about them….thank you for spreading the love and the joys of the season.”

It takes a (holiday) village

Thanks to a small army of volunteers, there is a squadron in the desert who is certain that they are remembered and appreciated. I can’t think of a more perfect gift for the season.